In recent years, with the increase in an amount of information to be treated by various kinds of electric equipments, a smaller and more compact electric connector has been desired and, thus, a male type connecting terminal of a smaller size has been required. For this requirement, a tip portion of a male type connecting terminal with a square cross section having a side of 0.64 mm has been developed as a standard male type connecting terminal.
A small male type rod-like connecting terminal of this kind is disclosed in JPA 11-329545, in which a tip portion has a rectangular cross section. FIG. 5 shows this known male type rod-like connecting terminal while a portion thereof has been dispensed with for the sake of clarity. The connecting terminal 1 is integrally formed by bending a thin conductive metal plate and includes a rod-like terminal connecting portion 2 which is to be electrically coupled with a corresponding female type connecting terminal. The connecting terminal further includes a U-shaped wire clamping portion to which is clamped an electric wire extending in an opposite direction to the terminal connecting portion 2.
In the known male type connecting terminal, the connecting terminal portion 2 has a hollow cylindrical shape as illustrated in FIG. 6. That is to say, the connecting terminal portion 2 is formed by bending a metal plate to have a given thickness.
The above mentioned terminal connecting portion 2 of the male type rod-like connecting terminal 1, however, is relatively delicate against force and vibration added up and down and, moreover, has such a drawback that it might be bent and in an extreme case, might be broken at a root portion of the terminal connecting portion 2 when strong force and vibration are continuously applied, because the terminal portion is relatively flat and metal plates standing side by side are limited in number and in width.
In addition, upon forming a hollow portion by bending a metal plate, a cost of manufacturing a mold becomes expensive especially for a super-small connecting terminal.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a male type rod-like connecting terminal, in which the above mentioned problems can be removed and a mechanical strength of a terminal connecting portion can be increased, even though the connecting terminal having a very small size is formed by bending a thin metal plate.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method of manufacturing the above mentioned male type rod-like connecting terminal.